(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intelligent information retrieval program generation system for generating an intelligent information retrieval program and an intelligent information retrieval system, and more particularly to an intelligent information retrieval program generation system for generating an intelligent information retrieval program incorporated in a document prepared using an information description language that is applicable to a wide-area information network such as the Internet, and an intelligent information retrieval system for retrieving intelligent information on an interactive basis.
(2) Description of the Related Art
As the Internet becomes more and more popular, Internet users can access to various pieces of information from various sources around the world while staying at home or office. On the Internet, an Internet user can browse various documents residing on WWW (World Wide Web) servers in GUI (Graphical User Interface) format using a WWW browser.
The WWW generally operates as follows: When an Internet user inputs an address (URL: Uniform Resource Locator) of information which the user wants to view with a WWW browser, a document having that address is downloaded from a WWW server to the WWW terminal of the user. The WWW browser converts the downloaded document into a predetermined format and then displays it on a display screen. In this manner, the user can view and obtain various pieces of information from WWW servers over the Internet. Most of the information available on the Internet is in the form of documents prepared using an information description language known as HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).
According to the above WWW process, the Internet user cannot gain access to a desired Web document unless he has an URL of that document. Since the amount of information available on the Internet is huge, the Internet user cannot necessarily reach a desired Web document simply by following links between documents. Therefore, it is necessary for the user to rely on WWW servers which provide document retrieval services. When a retrieval request is received from a WWW terminal, a WWW server starts a retrieval program through a CGI (Common Gateway Interface). The retrieval program makes an inquiry to a database, and converts retrieved data from the database into a document written in the HTML format. The produced HTML document is then transmitted to the WWW terminal.
Heretofore, it has been customary for each WWW server to effect all the processing for retrieving information requested by an Internet user. Therefore, the WWW server has undergone an excessive burden. If WWW terminals can carry out retrieval work for Internet users, then the burden on WWW servers will be reduced. Such a WWW terminal retrieval capability may be incorporated in an intelligent information retrieval system which allows a user to input information relative to a desired document on an interactive basis and which provides the desired document based on the inputted information. The intelligent information retrieval system with the WWW terminal retrieval capability is not affected by the data transfer rate between a WWW terminal and a WWW server. There has been a demand in the art for a system which can easily generate an information retrieval program that is capable of retrieving information on an interactive basis.